In Italian, there's not only a past participle, as in English, there is also a present participle. Many nouns and adjectives we use every day come from this tense, as well as from the past participle.

In this segment, Daniela talks about the gerund. As you will see, in Italian, the gerund is often used by itself, whereas in English we need an extra word before it — a conjunction or preposition. We are on more familiar ground when Daniela talks about using a gerund with the verb stare (to be) to form what we call the present continuous or present progressive.

Daniela gives us some more examples of gerunds used in subordinate clauses. Asking ourselves what questions the gerund answers can help us understand its role in a sentence.

A student asked Daniela to explain the difference between finché and the adverb fino. In fact, these words are tricky for English speakers to grasp. We're talking about "until" and "as long as," and in questions, "how far" and "how long."

In English, the difference between "until" and "as long as" is quite distinct, but in Italian, it's a little blurry because the presence of the negative word non (not) might change the meaning of a phrase or it might not. When the meaning is not altered by its presence, the word, in this case non (not), is "pleonastic." We're talking about finché and finche non.

Daniela looks at the various contexts for using the adverb ora (now) and its synonyms and variants.

Ora, the word for "now" can be combined with a number of other words to means something that has to do with time, but that indicates more precisely when a period begins or ends.

Michela's lesson on nationality also concerns intonation, which is so important in signaling a question.

Where are you from? Michela explains how to answer the question in Italian, whether you're a man or a woman or in a group.

The adjective forms learned in the earlier two lessons are used for a wider selection of nationalities.

Michela goes over some common personal adjectives. In English adjectives generally don't change according to gender, but with blond (m), blonde (f), brown-haired (m), brunette (f) they do change.

Michela talks about adjectives that describe a person's personality.

The imperfect tense is one of several past tenses in Italian. It can be tricky to use correctly because it doesn't always match up with one specific tense in English. Depending on the context, it is translated differently. Michela uses a timeline to help you understand.

Michela shows us how and when imperfect verbs are used to describe actions, people, weather, and time.

Michela shows us how to conjugate verbs in the imperfetto (imperfect past tense). She covers -are verbs and -ere verbs. It's easy once you get the idea.